Kate Middleton has confessed that she isn’t immune to parenting pressures.
WATCH: Kate Middleton admits to tough parenthood experience
The Duchess of Cambridge revealed that she feels “guilt” every time she leaves Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis to carry out her royal duties.
Kate made the devastating confession on the Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast.
As the wife of Prince William, Kate often travels the UK and the globe to fulfil her royal role.
Just like other mums, the Duchess revealed how leaving her trio at home is a “constant challenge”.
This, she said, is especially prevalent when they ask her why she can’t stay with them.
When asked by the podcast’s host, Giovanna Fletcher, whether she feels the so-common “mum guilt”, Kate replied: “Yes absolutely – and anyone who doesn’t as a mother is actually lying.
“Yep – all the time, even this morning, coming to the nursery visit here – George and Charlotte were like ‘Mummy how could you possibly not be dropping us off at school this morning?’
“It’s a constant challenge – you hear it time after time from mums, even mums who aren’t necessarily working and aren’t pulled in the directions of having to juggle work life and family life.”
She added how she often feels guilty over the parenting decisions she makes.
She said: “You’re always sort of questioning your own decisions and your own judgements and things like that, and I think that starts from the moment you have a baby.”
Kate also spoke out about her labours on the podcast.
She famously suffered from hyperemesis gravidarum during all three of her pregnancies, and said that hypnobirthing had made her feel like she was “in control” again.
Hypnobirthing techniques – such a visualising birth in a positive light – are used to ease the birthing process and aim to ensure the mum-to-be remains calm and controlled from the moment she goes into labour.
She explained: “I saw the power of it really, the meditation and the deep breathing and things like that – that they teach you in hypnobirthing – when I was really sick and actually I realised that this was something I could take control of, I suppose, during labour.
“It was hugely powerful and because it had been so bad during pregnancy, I actually really quite liked labour! Because actually it was an event that I knew there was going to be an ending to.”
While partners can get involved in hypnobirthing too, Kate confessed it was something she wanted to do on her own, rather than with her husband, Prince William.
She added: “I’m not going to say that William was standing there sort of, chanting sweet nothings at me. He definitely wasn’t!
“I didn’t even ask him about it, but it was just something I wanted to do for myself.”
When asked about her parenting style, Kate said she takes reference from her own childhood, which she credits as being rich in positive relationships.
“If I take the experience from my own childhood, coupled with what I know now and what I’ve learnt from the experts in the early years sector, I think there’s a few things that really stand out for me,” Kate said.
“One is [the] quality of relationships – so those moments that you spend with people that are around you. I remember that from my own childhood.
“I had an amazing granny who devoted a lot of time to us, playing with us, doing arts and crafts and going to the greenhouse to do gardening, cooking with us, and I try and incorporate a lot of the experiences that she gave us at the time into the experiences I give my children now,” she said.
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